St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church

2300 W. Huntington Drive, Kirkwood Hwy, Wilmington, Delaware 19808

Rev. James Weremedic, Rector • (302) 995-6775 • Cell (570) 764-4323

Email: • Web: www.stmichael-delaware-oca.org

Vespers & Confessions: Saturday, 5:00 pm

Hours, Divine Liturgy & Fellowship: Sunday, 8:40 am

Church School follows Sunday’s Divine Liturgy.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

2nd SUNDAY OF PASCHA. Tone 1. St. Thomas Sunday.

St. Theodore the Sykeote, Bishop of Anastasiopolis. Blv. Vsévolod, Prince of Pskov. Apostles Nathaniel, Luke and Clement. Ven. Vitalis of Gaza.

Reader’s Schedule

DATE 3RD HOUR 6TH HOUR EPISTLE

Apr 22 CARPENTER SENSOR WEREMEDIC

Apr-29 SOUDER, C WEREMEDIC CAREY

Date / Fellowship
Coffee Hour / Service
Duty / Church Cleaners / Library
22-Apr / Carey, Bunitsky
Poletaev / Riley
Baldytchev / Kutch / Dozier
29-Apr / Conover
Daubert / Bunitsky
Sulpizi / Riley / Daubert

Our Church School will present a play and an Egg Hunt following today’s Divine Liturgy. Please support the Church School by coming to the fellowship hour.

Correction:

Marie Karawulan donated money for Pascha flowers and dedicated the hydrangea to the Karawulan family. We are sorry her name was omitted from the list of donors.

The Parish Council will hold a meeting in the Conference room on Thursday, May 3rd at 6:30 pm.

Parents with children graduating this year, please send Mona Elia the name of your graduate and what are they graduating from high school or college. We need to prepare book store gift certificates and have them ready for Fr. James. Your response is appreciated.

PASCHA 2012

The myrrh-bearing women, at the break of dawn, drew near to the tomb of the life-giver. There they found an angel sitting upon the stone. He greeted them with these words: why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do you mourn the incorrupt amid corruption? Go, proclaim the glad tidings to his disciples. (Paschal stichera)

To the Venerable Pastors, God-loving Monastics and Devout Faithful of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania:

Christ is Risen!

When the Myrrh-bearing women arrived early in the morning to the burial site of their Lord and Master, they approached with fear and uncertainty, looking to anoint the One who had recently been laid in the sepulcher. Instead, they found an empty tomb and were greeted with the astounding words of the Angel. What power those brief words must have held for them and what joy must have filled their hearts! They came expecting death and found life; they came in fear and trembling and were given joy. Christ, the Life-Giver, has triumphed over the law of death and this victory belongs to all of humanity. It is truly a universal victory, which the Angel indicated by sending the Women to announce the good news to the Disciples. By this action, the Angel was, in fact, telling the women to announce to the entire world that death has been overcome by the power of God and that Divine Love now has dominion over all. With each passing year the Holy Orthodox Church bears witness to this universal reality through her Paschal shout of “Christ is Risen!” In our paschal liturgical celebrations, we perpetuate the original proclamation to the Myrrh-bearing Women. They shared it with the Disciples, and the Disciples, in turn, carried the news to the entire world. It is now our turn to share with the world, not only this message, but the reality of our own rebirth into eternal life through Jesus Christ. The Savior came into the world, suffered, was crucified and buried, and now has risen from the tomb in order that each person might have the chance to pass through this experience of the Cross and the Empty Tomb. St. Paul speaks clearly of this: God… will also raise us up by his own power (1 Cor. 6:14). Orthodox Christians in all generations have faced many challenges and our generation is no different. The Myrrhbearing Women remind us that our faith is not in the power of death but in the power of the sacrificial life of Christ. That is why the feast of Pascha is the feast of the victory of life over death, for through the resurrection of Christ the Savior, resurrection from the dead has been granted to us all. And through the power of the Resurrection we become luminaries bringing light and life to the darkest regions of despair. As we celebrate together this most glorious feast, I greet all of you with the Paschal embrace of hope and peace and I pray that you and your loved ones will be filled with the joy received by the Women at the Tomb.

Sincerely Yours in the Risen Lord,

+TIKHON, Bishop of Philadelphia and Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania

Prayers for the Departed: Marie Skrobot, Cynthia McCarter.

Prayers for the Sick and Needy: Steven Hojnicki, deployed to Afghanistan. Luke Wales, Agnes Timchak, Olga and James Riley, Anna Hotrovich, Mark, Mary Guretsky, Onufry Zabinko, John Elliott, Marie Holowatch, Theophan Shatley, Natalia Romaniouga, Joseph Wojciechowski, Olga Maloney, James Carpenter, Aaron Hojnicki, Stephanie, Andrew, Joyce Hassler, Donna Reda, Trisha, Efgaheni, Urshula, Catherine, Caroline Humphrey.

Prayers for Celebration: Cathy Souder celebrating her birthday this week.

Acts 5:12-20 (Epistle)

And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people.

And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch.

Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.

And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.

Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.


John 20:19-31 (Gospel)

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.